1.Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control apparatus configured to display three-dimensional images.
2.Description of the Related Art
Three-dimensional imaging apparatuses have been proposed recently in which two lenses are arranged in parallel to each other and video signals input through the respective lenses are reproduced for both right and left eyes of a user to allow the user to recognize the video signals three-dimensionally by using parallax.
When three-dimensional images are reproduced, to recognize three-dimensional images three-dimensionally, a method of watching the reproduced images with a pair of polarization glasses or a pair of glasses each provided with an electronic shutter, and a method of using lenticular lenses to recognize the three-dimensional images three-dimensionally without any glasses, have been proposed.
In the above-described three-dimensional image reproduction technology, a technology in which an image is laid out in a depth direction has been known. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-071332 discusses a technique when laying out each image of grouped objects on a display unit, the images included in each group are displayed being spaced at an equal distance in the depth direction when the images are displayed by each group, as illustrated in FIG. 3 of the present application.
If the distance between the images is equal in each group, a display range in the depth direction from an image located at the front surface (foreground) to an image located at the back surface is changed depending on the number of images included in the group. Consequently, a group including a large number of images has a large depth while a group including a small number of images has a small depth.
Thus, according to the three-dimensional representation with images laid out in the depth direction by each group, when a user watches the images of each group, the focus of the user's eyes and the amount of parallax change largely each time when the user moves from one group to another, thereby enhancing the feeling of fatigue to the user compared to 2-dimensional representation.